You (yes, YOU!) Make a Difference!

11/10/23

Hi Mortal Angel –

Do you ever wonder if something (positive!) you did, as one person, could really contribute anything of value to the world?

Of COURSE you do! 

Back to that thought in a minute . . . 

I have the last of four (very different) events that I helped plan (and put on) over the course of four weeks coming up this weekend and my heart and brain are kinda worn out yet still frantically hyper. 

(All apologies to the people who’ve put up with the emotional mayhem that comes with feeling overwhelmed and under qualified! :)) 

‘Hyper’ because I’ll be giving a new talk tomorrow and this one is a little more revealing about being trafficked as a child, and the ramifications. It also has a lot more faith added in and practical ways people can help survivors. 

The intro to the talk was posted on 10/20/23 (“Over My Head and NOT Drowning {Gurgle}”). Kinda freaked out about doing this, to say the least.

I have a 92 year old friend who I adore. She can make me laugh harder than anyone else, and we both forgive easily when we’ve been snarly with each other. 

She grew up in England and was 8 or 9 years old when Hitler started bombing her country. She’s told me some of her memories and yikes! ~ Definitely the stuff of nightmares.

Anyway, she said one of the kindest, most empathetic things anyone ever said to me; “Pearl, when you give a talk it’s like you’re ripping your heart and soul open. I imagine it as if you are baring yourself naked in front of the people, and when you’re done I wish I could be there with a blanket to wrap you in and hold you close and comfort you.”

(Sniffle.) Is it any wonder why I love this woman so? 

All that to say, I’m posting something that was written for another purpose since I haven’t had the wherewithal to write anything new this week. It’s about how one person always makes a significant difference. 

Here it is ~

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. ~ 1 Cor v. 12

Hi Good People ~

I have a belief that I don’t know that many will agree with but feel a need to express it anyway . . . 

I love the sermons given at our church and ALMOST always agree with them (uh oh :)).

I have the utmost respect for the time it takes to write them, letting Holy Spirit be the guide, and the research that goes into to some of them.

The one I have a bit o’ disagreement with was on how bad the world seems to be. 

Yes, definitely the world has it’s natural disasters, horrors, unfathomable cruelty at times, and a distinct lack of integrity in some people, circles, and leaders. 

In many areas we are doing it to ourselves. Some of us might not take a stand for what we believe in because we’ve become too comfortable to bother, or think someone else ‘should’, or believe one person can’t make a difference so why try? 

I wonder if Viktor Frankl thought ‘why bother’ trying to maintain a positive attitude while imprisoned for three years (!) in concentration camps during the holocaust, then went on to write the major best selling book “Man’s Search For Meaning”, which gave hope through showing a different way to perceive things that could otherwise break us. 

Or Corrie Ten Boom, who was imprisoned for ten months during the holocaust, and held her sister as she died due to the horrid conditions they were subjected to. Her story was told in the book and movie, “The Hiding Place”. She became a “Tramp for the Lord” by traversing around the world giving hope and encouragement by telling her story of maintaining faith and love during and after her ordeal, and being able to forgive the worst of her offenders.

Martin Luther King started out as one person. So did Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Joyce Meyer, and all the other world changers.

But we don’t have to go ‘that big’ to make a difference. Just one act of kindness can redeem another’s day, and for all you know, save them from doing something harmful to their self or others. It can also start a chain reaction that gets passed on to bless unknown others, one person at a time.

As to how bad the world is getting – are we totally sure there hasn’t been as much, if not more evil in the past, and either we forgot or we just didn’t know about it? Hitler? Saddam Hussein? Sodom and Gomorrah? Pontius Pilot? And which King ordered the death of all the boys when Moses was a baby? I could go on but you get the picture.

Fifty years ago, or even twenty, no one discussed human trafficking, yet it was going on and proliferating in the dark because no one wanted to see. Same with domestic violence, child (and animal) abuse, violence against minorities. We all just walked around in ignorance while so many were suffering in silence with little to no hope of being noticed, rescued and helped, let alone healed.

In my humble opinion (and you don’t have to agree :)), satan is our friend as long as we let him have his way in the dark. It’s when people stared noticing, shining the Light of God into and doing something about the evils of the world, that satan started rising up to defend his previously free reign in the nether regions of human behavior. 

There’s also the aspect that Mr. Roger’s so eloquently described: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers, you will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so may helpers, so many caring people in the world.”

When my high school alma mater had a major tragedy a couple of years ago, I was devastated. I was able to take my dog over there several times as a therapy pet.

The first couple of times we went to a huge community center where hundreds, if not thousands of people came together on a daily basis to comfort each other, be there for each other, help heal each other. Even our mortal enemies from then next town over were congregating there to offer support to their newly claimed friends. 

When we and four other dog teams went to the high school their first day back, I don’t know how many counselors and support personal were brought in to help the students cope. Professionals from around the country were on call to help any of the faculty and local therapists handle the otherwise overwhelming tragedy. 

Yes, one deeply hurting, confused child caused great pain and unimaginable horror, terror and immense pain for many, but thousands rose up to show what love in action is, what imperfect mortals who acted as Jesus with skin looks like.

When was the last time you heard about other tragedies, whether mass shootings, war, or natural disasters like hurricanes, wild fires, etc., and no one came to help put things back together again? 

Never. 

There are countless organizations with mostly volunteers who race to the sights to see what they can do to aid in the recovery.

Can you even begin to imagine how many millions of others are praying for these situations?  And every person that responds in some way during these times of trouble, is just one person who chose to do something. 

Dear Heavenly Abba,

Thank You so much for all the good in this world, for the millions of people who chose to do something when they see others in pain. Every prayer is a  miracle forming, every positive reaction an act of God via human compassion, love, empathy and redemption. 

Help us to focus on that, too. Yes, we need to see the horrors to do something about them, but we balance that out with remembering who YOU are, greater than all of it, and who we are when we let You work through us. With You, we are greater than tragedies, and what satan tries to intimidate us with.

In Jesus name, Amen!

Hallelujah, and Praise You, God. Amen.